[accessibleimage] Beyond Sight Awareness Alert 4:

 Beyond Sight Awareness Alert 4:
 
Last Days of Art Education for the Blind?s Art Beyond Sight Awareness
Week. Celebrate October 11-25!
 
Congratulations, Art Beyond Sight Collaborative partners.
Art Beyond Sight Awareness Week has begun to make waves!
Let?s keep the momentum going!
 
We wanted you to know?
On Friday, October 15, 2004, Johnna A. Pro, of the Pittsburgh
Post-Gazette, reported on Art Beyond Sight Awareness Week celebration at
the Western Pennsylvania School for Blind Children in Oakland, with
award-winning local sculptor Robert Qualters. Qualters spoke to the
students about his inspirations when he developed the "food arch" in the
school's Children's Garden. The students then worked with Qualters to
sculpt different types of food.
 
On the roads of northeast Florida, Hope McMath of the Cummer Museum, has
create an Art Beyond Sight Awareness Week billboard campaign. This is one
project of a year-long partnership with a local advertising agency.
 
CBS Channel 2 news picked up the Art Beyond Sight Awareness Week story and
interviewed Elisabeth Axel, founder and Executive Director of Art
Education for the Blind, Mindy Fliegelman, Second Vice President of
National Federation of the Blind of New York, Dr. Carole R. Gothelf,
Assistant Executive Director of Programs and Services, The Shield
Institute; and Janet Lo, American Museum of Folk Art. This will air on the
early morning news show, on Wednesday, October 20, 5:30-6:45 am.
 
If your program has been publicized, share the news with us. Send details,
copies or links about coverage to artbeyondsight@xxxxxxxx Or mail to: Art
Education for the Blind, 589 Broadway, Fourth Floor, New York, N 10012.
 
Help us spread the word. If your Art Beyond Sight Awareness Week program
was a success, email details to us, so we can share your experiences and
ideas with others planning new programs or 2005 Awareness Week
celebrations.
 
Also, join your local Art Beyond Sight listserv and post your ideas there;
read about other art programs in your neighborhood
 
Inspire and be inspired.
 
Art Beyond Sight Awareness: You Can Do Your Part!
·
          
Send this email to everyone on your list
·
          
JOIN ART BEYOND SIGHT ONLINE COMMUNITY: in your Field or in your
Neighborhood
Discussion Groups -- share your experiences and talk to experts.
 
We have five different discipline-based groups: Museums, Educators,
Learning Tools, Community and Advocacy, and Theory and Research.
Listservs. State-by-state or Around the World
·
          
PARTICIPATE in our eBay Benefit Auction. There are three easy ways you can
help: Sell an item on eBay on behalf of Art Education for the Blind (you
choose the percentage of your proceeds that go to AEB); buy an item being
sold to benefit AEB or make an in-kind donation!
·
          
Register your accessible art program or museum on Vision Connection?s Help
Near You searchable database at www.visionconnection.org. This will
increase participation in your programs and attract local patrons and
tourists who are blind or have low vision.
·
          
BECOME A MENTOR ! If you are a museum or an arts professional and would
like to participate in an e-mentoring program for someone who is blind or
visually impaired, please email your contact information to
Artbeyondsight@xxxxxxx ; subject line: Mentor program
 
What is Art Beyond Sight?
Art Beyond Sight is an international collaborative of community-based
groups and local affiliates of national agencies; museums and other
arts-related organizations; elementary and high schools; colleges and
universities; national and international advocacy groups; and blind,
visually impaired, and sighted art enthusiasts. Art Beyond Sight provides
a forum for ongoing interdisciplinary dialogues among researchers and
practitioners, who share expertise and materials. On the local level, the
collaborative assists museum professionals and other educators; parents;
artists; and art lovers to create vehicles for lasting change in their
communities.
 
Art Beyond Sight: A Resource Guide to Art, Creativity, and Visual
Impairment
Edited by Elisabeth Salzhauer Axel, Nina Sobol Levent, Ph.D.
 
In 2003, AFB and Art Education for the Blind joined together to co-publish
a one-of-a-kind resource that provides vital information on all aspects of
exploring art and creativity by people who are blind or visually impaired.
Developed by Art Education for the Blind, this beautiful, fully
illustrated manual is the result of a decade-long international
collaboration among researchers, art educators, teachers of visually
impaired students, psychologists, museum professionals, and blind and
sighted art enthusiasts. Includes a section of reproducible pages for
classroom or workshop activities.
 
$69.95. Paperback (also available in: ASCII Disk), 504 pp., ISBN:
0-89128-850-3 To purchase Art Beyond Sight, click here., or go to
www.afb.org/store/
 
Art Education for the Blind Event
New York City on November 4, 2004
 
Join Art Education for the Blind in Celebrating Access And Diversity In
NYC!
 
After-The-Show Reception
with members of the cast of ?The Gospel at Colonus,?
including The Blind Boys of Alabama.
Apollo Theatre, 253 West 125th Street, NYC
Starring Charles S. Dutton (Roc, The Piano Lesson) and gospel greats The
Blind Boys of Alabama, ?The Gospel at Colonus? is a foot-stomping musical
that recreates the Greek tragedy of the blind King Oedipus in the context
of a Black Pentecostal church service.
 
The reception honors the show?s creators and cast, and the docents and
staff of NYC arts institutions who made AEB?s Art Beyond Sight Awareness
Week celebration in NYC a great success.
 
Tickets to the 8 p.m. November 4th performance are available from Art
Education for the Blind (AEB) for box office price of $70, $50, and $30
each.
 
For more information or to request tickets, contact Artbeyondsight@xxxxxxx
 
READ ON FOR MORE on the artists, museums and exciting projects and events
of the Art Beyond Sight Collaborative and Art Beyond Sight Awareness Week
2004.
 
Contemporary Artist Focus
 
Robert Steinem
 
When Robert Steinem, a visually impaired artist, visited museums as a
child, he always left thinking, ?I could do that.? Such feelings led him
to begin drawing and painting. He stopped, however, at the age of 19. ?In
1960, while I was in the service, I lost clear vision. I cannot focus
centrally, so I have peripheral vision only. By the time I got out of the
service, my eyes were so bad that I quit drawing. I didn?t even want to
think about it,? he says.
 
After his stint in the Armed Forces, he worked first in the music
business, then as a writer and poet. In his free time, he and his wife
often visited museums, and?although he?d abandoned his own art?when they?d
leave a museum he?d always murmur, ?I could do that.? His wife finally
challenged him to prove it by buying an easel, paints and canvas and
giving them to him for his birthday. He stashed them in a corner of his
home office, where they remained until then one cold winter day in the mid
1990s, when he ?picked up a brush and rediscovered the joy of painting.?
 
Since then, the self-taught artist says, ?I have learned to work with the
limitations that I have, rather than not do what I want to do.? He has
built his own easel?one he can stand on so he can get close enough to the
canvas to see it and his brush?and developed a method of working.
?Although I cannot see details in life, I have a self-focusing camera that
I use to shoot scenes I want to paint. I then enlarge these photos, and
study the wonderful details they reveal. A friend who?s a doctor made
glasses for me, and I use a magnifying glass on top of that.? Generally,
he sketches his subject first, and then paints it.
 
Mr. Steinem does a lot of what he calls ?reflection pieces?--buildings
reflected in the windows of other buildings, plants and leaves reflected
in water. ?I?ve been playing with abstract and figured I could find it in
nature, and I did, in water, in water reflections.? His photographic
studies for his water reflections were taken at a canal near his
Massachusetts home. [The image above, ?If Not for the Tension?, a 16 x 12
inch oil on canvas, depicts a red, yellow and brown autumn maple leaf
floating in water which reflects blue, green and black colors; 6 small air
bubbles have formed at the leaf?s edge.]
 
Since 1998, Mr. Steinem has had a number of one-man shows in Vermont,
Massachusetts, Virginia and Washington, DC. Two of his paintings are being
issued as prints by National Cathedral, and one of his snow landscapes was
selected by the Christopher Reeve Foundation for it?s 2005 calendar. The
artist still continues to write, but it is now his hobby, and painting,
his vocation.
 
 
Program Focus:
 
Colorado Ballet
1278 Lincoln St. Denver, CO
 
80203. (303) 837-8888. (303) 861-7174 fax
 
This year, Colorado Ballet celebrates its 44th season of bringing
world-class quality dance to Denver and to the state. One of Colorado's
oldest and most successful arts institutions, Colorado Ballet is the only
organization of its size and stature to produce classical ballet in
Colorado. The Colorado Ballet has two innovative programs for visitors
with visual impairments: Backstage Sensory Tours and Ballet-to-Go. A
Hands-On Ballet Trunk.
 
This year, Colorado Ballet celebrates its 44th season of bringing
world-class quality dance to Denver and to the state. One of Colorado's
oldest and most successful arts institutions, Colorado Ballet is the only
organization of its size and stature to produce classical ballet in
Colorado. The Colorado Ballet has two innovative programs for visitors
with visual impairments: Backstage Sensory Tours and Ballet-to-Go. A
Hands-On Ballet Trunk.
 
Backstage Sensory Tours for the Visually Impaired
 
The Backstage Sensory Tours are hands-on, tactile tours of each production
for the visually impaired and their guests. Patrons who are visually
impaired are invited to the theater two hours before a performance (once a
production) to learn more about the ballet by experiencing it through
touch. Alyson Vivar, Director of Education and Outreach, joined this past
Monday?s Art Beyond Sight Telephone Conference Crash Course to describe
the Ballet?s Accessible programming.
 
The Ballet has had as many as 42 people attend one of the backstage tours,
which are followed by lunch and then an audio-described performance of the
ballet. During the backstage tour, visitors learn about the history and
music, and they touch props and costumes, so when they are described
later, they know exactly what they are.
 
"We've even taught guests some movement from the ballets," Vivar stated.
"Also, we've had dancers participate in the tours, sometimes letting the
guests actually feel the position of their feet and legs."
 
After the tour and lunch, guests attend the performance and listen to a
live audio description. Trained describers go through the details of the
plot, movement, scenery, costumes and lighting so that guests really ?see?
what happens on stage! This backstage program has been going on for five
years, and the Ballet uses invaluable feedback from participants to make
the tour and performance as meaningful as possible.
 
Ballet-to-Go. A Hands-On Ballet Trunk
?Dear Colorado Ballet ? your show was awesome! It was like from another
universe.?
? Student
The hands-on ballet trunk, Ballet To-Go, is full of real ballet artifacts
that people can touch and look at up-close. In a tailor-made discussion,
educators introduce ballet and answer questions about the art form, the
life of a dancer and the behind-the-scenes facts about the Ballet?s
productions. Originally created for students, Ballet To-Go works for any
age group from little ones to adults.
 
For more information, contact: Director of Education and Outreach ? Alyson
Vivar, (303) 837.8888 ext. 19. alyson@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
 
The School For The Visually Impaired In Jyväskylä, Finland
PL 319 Kukkumäentie 27, 40101 Jyväskylä, Finland. Tel. + 358
 
14
 
3343 161.
www.jynok.fi
 
Resource center for learning and development
The school is state-subsidized and offers children education and
rehabilitation from pre-school to the end of secondary education. The
school also provides supportive consultation for pupils in local
comprehensive schools and senior schools, offering regional tutoring and
special courses for pupils, teachers and key workers. The learning
material department of the school designs, tests and sells learning
materials to blind and partially sighted pupils from pre-school to tenth
grade in every school subject. The department produces Braille texts,
embossed pictures, simplified pictures and enlarged texts for pupils with
low vision. Guidebooks and videos are also produced for teacher training
courses and pupil?s parents. Students live in a residence where the pupils
can attend various leisure time activities arranged by a free time
instructor. Social skills, the practice of independent living and daily
living skills are also included in everyday life.
 
The Art Programme
The main purpose of art education is to provide aesthetic experiences,
develop creative thinking, improve problem-solving and critical thinking
skills, develop self-esteem and self-awarehess, and to express one?s own
thoughts through the creative processes. The program also strives to
integrate art into other school subjects, bringing a new perspective to
other learning situations and teaching various art techniques specific to
visual impairment.
 
In this program, students explore themes, based on works from museums and
galleries collection, including abstraction, landscapes and the
environment, portraits, still lives, art from recycled materials, symbols
and self-identity. Cognitive approaches, draw on art history and other
curricular subjects, such as history, math, science and nature, language
arts and literature. Emotional approaches include the use of kinaesthetic
perception to understand abstract art, exploration of religion and ethics,
the integration of music, and the exploration of symbols and
self-identity. Art techniques have included drawing, design and
composition choices, abstraction, printmaking, exhibition , sculpture,
collage, writing, ceramics, and poetry.
 
For example, in one project, based on Hugo Simberg's oil painting " A
wounded angel,? the students discussed the painter?s life and the cultural
context in which he worked and lived. They then listened to a tape
describing the painting in more details: i.e. there are two sad young boys
carrying a shot, wounded angel, whose eyes are covered with a white scarf.
They discussed how the figure?s body language, lines, color and
composition conveyed information. They then created a detail of angel's
wing by gluing reeds, flower and thread on the white cardboard.
 
For more information, contact: Marketta Perttunen, Art instructor,
Learning Material Designer, marketta.perttunen@xxxxxxxx
 
Braille Institute of America
741 North Vermont Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90029, 323-663-1111
 
Braille Institute of America is a private, nonprofit organization whose
mission is to eliminate blindness and severe sight loss as a barrier to a
fulfilling life. The organization was founded in 1919 by John Robert
Atkinson, a Montana cowboy who was blinded by a gunshot wound. Now known
as Braille Institute of America, Inc., the organization has grown to
include not only the production of braille reading materials, but also
integrated educational, social and recreational programs and services. The
Institute offers all of its services, including its extensive art program,
free of charge and is operated and funded almost entirely through private
individual and foundation sources.
 
After almost fifty years, the Braille Institute's art program is still
thriving. Students range from partially sighted to totally blind.
 
It offers more than 20 art classes a week through its enrichment program,
including art history, ceramics, sculpture, mosaic tile, knitting,
basketry, quilt-making, fiber arts and other classes, all designed to
introduce art concepts to students with visual impairments. The
Institute?s students have exhibited their work at art galleries across the
city, and most recently they participated in the Art Beyond Sight exhibit
this past July at the Conejo Valley Center for the Arts. Several classes
are taught by generous volunteer teachers who have years of experience in
their field, and who dedicate their time and energy to the enrichment of
its students. Additional, the Braille Institute offers an undergraduate
art history course with the California State University Northridge, and
Los Angeles City College.
 
More information can be found at www.brailleinstitute.org.
 
Selected Art Beyond Sight Awareness Week Events
 
October 21:
The Albuquerque Museum, Albuquerque, NM , is offering a special
docent-guided tour of its Sculpture Garden at 10 a.m. This tour initiates
an ongoing program that welcomes blind and visually impaired participants
to join the Museum's Sculpture Garden tours given at 10 a.m. on Tuesdays
through Saturdays from April through October. For information on the
museum and its Sculpture Garden , visit www.cabq.gov/museum.
Kerr Arts & Cultural Center, Kerrville, TX , is offering verbal tours of
the Kerrville Art Club Show & Sale; call (830) 895-2911 to arrange for a
guide.
Miami Art Museum, Miami, FL , has touch tours 10 and 11 a.m. and noon ;
call (305) 375-4073 to arrange.
 
October 22:
South Street Seaport Museum, New York, NY, is offering descriptive and
hands-on tours of its exhibition, "Soundings," at 2 p.m. The tour is being
led by Caissa Douwes, Director of the Inclusive Arts Project. Call (212)
748-8568 to confirm participation.
 
October 23:
Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham, AL , is hosting a special touch tour
at 10 a.m.
Metropolitan Museum of Art , NYC, has a Picture This! workshop for adults
with visual impairments, on 19th-century French painting, at 11 a.m. This
program is free, but space is limited, so reservations are required; call
(212) 879-5500, ext. 3561.
 

_______________________________________________
Art_beyond_sight_theory_and_research mailing list
Art_beyond_sight_theory_and_research@xxxxxxxxxx
http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/art_beyond_sight_theory_and_research


Lisa Yayla
Huseby Kompetansesenter 
Oslo Norway
lisa.yayla@xxxxxxxxxx

Other related posts: